NWL Rosebowl at Scaling Dam Sailing Club

NWL Rosebowl at Scaling Dam © Lucy Priest

NWL Rosebowl at Scaling Dam © Lucy Priest

On Sunday we had the latest of this year's Trophy Events, the NWL Rosebowl. With 16 entries for the first race this gave us 4 teams of 4 boats each, including 2 visitors from Tees & Hartlepool and a handful of novice racers.

The teams were provisionally set before the first race, with the race team reserving the right to modify them if necessary and contained a good mix of boats from International Canoe to Optimist (though just for once there were no Streakers on the water).

The first race went off in a light and fluky breeze, starting at 6, beating to 1 and reaching across to Yellow before heading right off up to 5. Racing was extremely tight between the Lasers in particular, with several changes of position as different people found their own personal gusts, although the Fireballs, Phantom and Albacore took the top few places. Further down the fleet Ian did a great job of getting micro-crew Callum round the course, even putting the spinnaker up on the final leg and then surviving a tacking duel to the final mark with the Hartley.

After a quick crew change in the Cadet the second race was run on the same course, with the wind getting even lighter and patchier. Steve Fletcher decided to try out the reversing capabilities of the Hartley on the start line causing minor chaos. The Fireballs and Phantom suffered a bit in this race as they all got stuck in a hole waiting for the wind to fill in, while the Lasers continued to push each other hard, taking 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places behind Judy & Paul. In the Cadet Ian was busy taking Mathys from RYA Stage 1 to Sailing with Spinnakers in the course of a single race.

By lunchtime a few extra boats had arrived, so an extra team was added to the event while the Oppy & Laser 4.7 also switched teams. After lunch the wind still looked light so the race officers went for a smaller figure 8 course. This was enough to persuade the wind to fill in, giving the race officer a headache counting laps but the fleet some tight racing with plenty of opportunity to gain and loose places on mark roundings. The extra competitors shook up the fleet placings a little while Steve seemed to be finally figuring out how to make the Hartley go in the direction he wanted and the extra breeze also seemed to suit the L2000.

After another quick break for everyone except Ian & Mathys (who were having too much fun to want to come ashore) the final race went back to a longer course. The finish on this was extremely tight, with Judy & Paul finishing in a dead heat with Georgia and Zoe in the Fireball while the Laser fleet continued to trade places all the way up the final beat.

Final Team Scores:

5th (182 points) – Team Neptune
4th (128 points) – Team Titan
3rd (91 points) – Team Jupiter
2nd (90 points) – Team Mercury
1st (89 points) – Team Wallaby 1

SDSC mugs went to members of the winning team (Judy & Paul Armstrong, Keith Caush & Jo Pearce, Sophie Hatch and Carl Wood) and the Y&J mug went to Mathys Pappo. Thanks to Mark Bennett in the race office, Callum Priest for the team names and to Jason Upton, Steve Fletcher and Ian Priest for teaming up with some of our novice racers who all had a fantastic day on the water. Full results attached